The first part of the auction mirrored the last auction Beth had participated in, with much of it being weapons and armor. Beth didn't find anything that she particularly wanted, but she enjoyed seeing the reactions of much of the rest of the team. Even Adam and Kris were moved by some of the pieces, expressing interest until they saw the asking prices and bids. Bjorn was the only one who remained outwardly unaffected, having deployed his own chair in the private booth so as not to shatter the Seven Lights' furniture.

Two hours later it was time for the intermission, but before that, it was time for the full group's first item to go. This was the gem that none of them, including Mortaine, had expressed an interest in, and Megahn extolled the virtues of such a 'rare and powerful legendary material' for quite a bit of time before starting the bidding at five diamond coins. The piece didn't generate too much interest initially, as a handful of various people on the second and third floor traded a few small bids, but it was once again saved by the fourth floor taking interest. Nobody announced their interest this time, but bids started rolling in from people on that floor after the other bidders in the venue slowed down their calls.

"Oh, yeah, we're making money," Andrea chanted, wiggling in her seat as she watched the bids move past fifteen diamond coins and keep climbing quite steadily.

"You don't see this kind of coin that often, lassie. It's good to be excited," Rell chuckled from the side.

"Even a few diamond coins go a long way," Itharion commented calmly with a nod.

Beth just smiled and watched the bids climb as what was bound to happen happened, with two wealthy fourth floor participants engaging in a short but sharp bidding war. The price had already climbed into the high twenties in terms of diamond coins and now rocketed as the Ascended or Exalted participants directly raised the bids by five or more diamond coins a pop. The bidding only stopped because one of them clearly was interested in the item as a passing amusement and not to seriously create something, which they indicated when they stopped bidding. The final price was ninety diamond coins which, after Seven Lights' fees and split eight ways, would still net each of the eight of them more than ten diamond coins.

"Phew, still another lot of gems and the ring," Andrea sighed. "I might both payback the elixir and make money today."

"Have no doubt, lassie," Rell said. "That ring'll set 'em all off, mark me words."

"It's time for the intermission anyway," Beth said. "Is there anything anybody wants?"

"I could use a drink," Kris said.

"Same," Beth agreed instantly, moving over to the bar that was present in every private room. She grabbed a couple glasses before rifling through the bottles, seeing an impressive selection available, even if she didn't recognize more than half of it. She grabbed a whiskey that was aged twenty-five years and was marked as safe for basically any species to consume, which was labeling that all drinks had to have in the wider universe, and poured herself most of a glass.

"What do you want, Kris?" Beth asked as she was recapping the bottle.

"Whiskey, please," the demure woman requested quietly.

"Sure," Beth said, a little surprised at the phoenix's preference. She simply uncapped the bottle in her hand and poured the second glass three-quarters full before re-capping the bottle and setting it back on the bar. She stepped over and handed the phoenix her drink, their fingers touching briefly and Beth noting how warm Kris's hands were.

"Thank you," Kris said quietly, looking down and flushing before taking a big sip.

"You're quite welcome," Beth said, returning to her seat with a small smile.

They talked for a bit while the intermission happened, calm and a little odd music playing throughout the venue. Beth supposed it was what passed for relaxing music, but she found it a bit strange, though not in a totally unpleasant way. The break was about fifteen minutes with the stage remaining empty the entire time and it was Megahn's return to said stage that signaled the start of the second half. There wasn't a huge item at the start of the second half of the auction after the break, but it was a gradual buildup as the items were increasingly more valuable.

It was as the auction approached its final part that Beth took an increasing interest, as there were items popping up that even she would find quite useful. The first of the couple items that she was interested in was an elixir, and a very special one at that. While Beth hadn't really had any interest in the frost elixir they had gotten from the special challenge, she was very interested in this elixir. Based on the description, the secondary effects made the imbiber's flesh tougher but more supple, increasing their flexibility. Beth had gotten several things that made her tougher and stronger, but the flexibility would be a huge bonus that could take her movements to the next level.

The elixir started with a price of fifty diamond coins and minimum bids of one diamond coin, but she didn't participate right away. She waited and watched as the price climbed as a huge number of people threw into the bidding immediately. The price climbed very steadily towards the one mithril coin mark, and it was only as the bidding slowed that Beth entered the game, bidding a full mithril coin, several diamonds above what the last bid was. This chased away many of the smaller players who were on the edge of giving up, but a few of the other big players were still in it.

Beth waited for a handful of bids before throwing out a crazy increase, bidding one mithril and twenty diamonds, shocking the others present in the room with her. That bid also knocked everyone else out of the running, and Beth looked forward to being able to get her hands on the elixir, though not to the pain of taking another one. Every elixir was worse, as her now greatly changed body had to undergo even more changes to absorb the new effects of the new elixir.

The next lot was of great interest not because she wanted to bid, but because it was the rest of their gems. They had only been split into two lots, but this second lot was much higher quality and had most of the minerals Beth was willing to sell at this point, though she had kept a small amount of every ore or mineral for her own use. Still, the table that was presented was piled high with various rare materials and the asking price was equally rare, starting at a whopping thirty diamond coins. The trading firm wasn't pulling any punches, but the final run of items was always popular and always had people's emotions running high, so the lot saw no lack of bids even at that starting point. Beth just sat back and smiled, looking forward to the elixir and to what the ring they had offered, which still hadn't appeared, would be able to pull in.

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The second batch of their gems and minerals went for over sixty diamond coins, an amount that would let Andrea clear what she owed Beth for the frost-based elixir and still profit. And, again, that wasn't even including their masterwork ring that was yet to go up. The next item was another crafting material, though this one was only at the epic rank, unlike much of what had been auctioned that day. The crafting material was pretty damn rare, however, considering the way the place exploded in bidding for it, though Beth couldn't see what everyone needed such a generic looking rock for. It was due to her lack of imagination, as the material was the fourth overall item that day, including the elixir Beth had just bought, to break a bid of one mithril coin.

After the weird rock was sold, the next item was a dagger, though it wasn't anything crazy powerful. The appeal came from the fact that the dagger had a special secondary effect that allowed someone to sacrifice huge numbers of beast cores to gain permanent stat increases. The number of cores needed was pretty high and, considering the stat increases were not all that impressive, whoever bought the thing would be a true, genuine spendthrift, but Beth supposed it very much fit the classical definition of throwing money at a problem. The dagger was clearly something coveted by those fourth-floor powerhouses, as even the other private booth attendees all passed on the item, leaving a few of those luminaries to raise the price to just under a mithril coin before finishing their little bidding war.

That cleared the way for the next lot, the penultimate lot, and the lot that the team had been waiting all that time for. This was the ring they had put up for auction, good enough to be the second to last item, and it was brought out and set on a display with great gravitas. Megahn went into a long, perhaps overly long, introduction of the item, going into great detail about how it was a rare masterwork accessory and how it had powerful effects for any who wielded ice. She almost glossed over the downsides, only briefly mentioning the lingering influence of a devil possibly giving the wielder some trouble, depending on their level of strength.

Whether her description didn't register, or people just didn't care, the ring drew great interest from all the floors, but the first two were quickly priced out. A flurry of bids flew out from the third and fourth floors, and they didn't slow down for a long time, the ring easily breaching a mithril coin in value and continuing to climb. The price only stagnated when it hit one and a half mithril coins, but that was the point a very powerful fourth floor existence took interest. While it wasn't the same person as last time, it was a powerhouse strong enough that just his voice shook the minds and souls of the people in attendance. He instantly threw a bid of two mithril coins for the ring but was contested by both someone from his own floor as well as someone from the third floor.

The three rich Wayfarers immediately started trading insults and jibes as they pushed the bid up, none of them bothering with anonymity. Beth supposed when someone got that strong, there was a natural predilection to believe they were untouchable. Well, someone who could make others' souls shake just by speaking firmly was likely to have very few threats outside extremely high-level beasts and monsters, but Beth still thought it was a bit indiscrete of them. The bids soared as she pondered, the other member of the firm on the fourth floor dropping out at three mithril coins. That left the great powerhouse and the person on the third floor, both not backing down in the least. The insults got more heated for a moment, starting to affect the people in the auction hall, until Selene made an appearance and frowned up at a booth on the third floor before frowning at the fourth floor.

The two calmed down significantly after that, making their last few bids in a much more calm and reserved manner. The soul-shaking powerhouse bowed out after another few bids, letting the third-floor participant win the ring for three mithril, twenty-five diamond coins. Beth was quite happy with that, though the money didn't matter quite as much to her as it would to the rest of the team. Deducting what she spent on the elixir, she would be losing money at this auction, but that was sort of the point of being very financially secure. The money wasn't going to make her stronger sitting in her stat screen, though she definitely wasn't going on any wild shopping binges and spending it all any time soon.

"Well, that was something," Andrea said, a little star eyed as she dreamed of all the money she just made.

"It's not over yet," Beth chuckled in response.

"That's right, lassies. Can't forget the grand finale," Rell chuckled as well before they returned their attention to the stage.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and my non-determinant friends, let me present to you the last, and best, item of this month's auction!" Megahn exclaimed, gesturing as a small plinth was wheeled out. "Now, normally, as you all know, we offer a quite valuable item that has quite a lot of utility or power as the last piece of the auction. I must slightly disappoint a few of you by explaining that that's not what we have today; however, I think what we've prepared for our grand finale will still delight and excite you!"

The young and gorgeous attendant that was helping Megahn with the displays finished aligning the wheeled little plinth and, with a slight flourish, removed the cover to show the object beneath. Beth frowned at first, not seeing how the little sphere could be that great, before a wave of mana and something else hit her. She gasped from the effect, feeling like her mind was opened and all the pores on her body were drinking in whatever had just washed over her. She turned her head to see the rest of the booth was in a very similar state, even the very reserved Bjorn clearly showing his surprise.

"They have a soulstone?" Rell breathed out in shock.

"What's that?" Blood asked, staring at the sphere down on the stage in both puzzlement and a bit of longing.

"A soulstone is the condensed power of the soul," Rell explained quietly. "There are different grades of 'em, but even the lowest grade is supremely powerful, supremely rare, and supremely expensive. Buckle up, lads and lassies, because this place is about to go mad."

Before he could explain more, the bidding had started. The people sitting up on the fourth floor hadn't even let Megahn finish her explanation of the item, and Beth noticed that Selene had not left the side of the stage after calming the bidding over the ring. Her presence did little to dampen the proceedings, and even Beth was shocked and just a little appalled at the prices, and threats, being called out. These weren't waters that even the other enterprising third-floor guests could wade into, as someone had started the bid at fifty mithril coins before Megahn could even name the floor price, though that was only the very beginning. Others mocked the initial bidder as they called prices of seventy, eight, and ninety mithril coins before a full orichalcum was called. The bids only became more exaggerated from there, soaring quickly to two, then three orichalcum coins.

Beth and her team just watched the show, quickly becoming overawed at the amount of wealth that was being bid for the tiny stone. She thought she could hear Andrea choking when the price cracked past five orichalcum coins, and even Beth was struggling to imagine who would spend that much on the item. She watched the bidding continue for a minute before turning to Rell, seeing his own shocked expression.

"What the hell are they doing?" she asked him.

"It's a soulstone, lassie," he said. Seeing her, and the rest of the group's, expressions, he quickly elaborated, "A soulstone has many, many uses, the least of which is to strengthen a person's soul. That accomplishes a few things, including making their Presence control and strength much higher, and all that can be accomplished just by meditating in the same room as one of those little rocks. I don't know how the Seven Lights people got their hands on one, for a monthly auction, no less, but such an item is something that could result in bloodshed."

"Are we in danger?" Andrea asked worriedly.

"No, no, lassie, don't worry," Rell reassured the group with a soft chuckle. "Even those crazy powerhouses won't resort to open violence over this. Not only that, but with Selene here, they wouldn't dare make a move even if they're ten times crazier than I'm guessing."

"Whew, that's good," Andrea sighed, sitting back in her chair and wiping at her forehead.

"Looks like it's wrapping up," Beth said while thrusting her chin at the stage, drawing everyone's attention back there.

The bidding was down to two powerhouses going back and forth, both using the other's name and some colorful insults, so it was clear they were familiar with each other. The price was closing in on ten orichalcum coins, and it became obvious the man with the soul-stirring voice was tired of the games. He directly raised his next bid not to ten, but all the way to eleven orichalcum coins. The woman he was arguing with put in another bid, only raising the price slightly, so the man once again jumped the price, going all the way to thirteen orichalcum. The woman swore at him but didn't do anything else, including bid, and after three counts, Megahn signaled that the man was the winner, taking the soulstone for a cool thirteen orichalcum coins.

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